node.js - Is it possible to combine React Native with socket.io

Question

I was working on an app with Phonegap + React.js and Socket.io. However, then React-Native got released and the native feel is amazing.

I tried getting socket.io-client working with React Native, but unfortunately without much success. I did some research and I'm getting the exact same errors as described in this issue: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/375

The comments on the issue said to try and use the fetch API to fetch JS modules, but I think I'm doing this wrong:

var socketScript;    
fetch('https://cdn.socket.io/socket.io-1.2.0.js')
    .then(function(response) {
        socketScript = response._bodyText;
    }).done(function() {
        var socket = socketScript.io();
    });

This returns an undefined is not a function.

Is there any way to make socket.io-client work with React Native? Or am I looking at this the wrong way? Perhaps there are other, better suited solutions?

Answer 1

For those like me stumbling across this question looking how to integrate socket.io with react native.

Since React Native has supported websockets for a short time now, you can now set up web sockets really easily with Socket.io. All you have to do is the following

1. npm install socket.io-client
2. first import react-native
3. assign window.navigator.userAgent = 'react-native';
4. import socket.io-client/socket.io
5. in your constructor assign this.socket = io('localhost:3001', {jsonp: false});

So in all it should look like this after npm installing socket.io-client:

import React from 'react-native';

// ... [other imports]

import './UserAgent';

import io from 'socket.io-client/socket.io';

export default class App extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.socket = io('localhost:3001', {jsonp: false});
  }

  // now you can use sockets with this.socket.io(...)
  // or any other functionality within socket.io!

  ...
}

and then in 'UserAgent.js':

window.navigator.userAgent = 'react-native';

Note: because ES6 module imports are hoisted, we can't make the userAgent assignment in the same file as the react-native and socket.io imports, hence the separate module.

EDIT:

The above solution should work, but in the case it doesn't try create a separate socketConfig.js file. In there import anything that is needed, including const io = require('socket.io-client/socket.io'); and having window.navigator.userAgent = 'react-native'; BEFORE requiring socket.io-client. Then you can connect your socket there and have all listeners in one place. Then actions or functions can be imported into the config file and execute when a listener receives data.